64 
T H E T A S M A N 1 A N N ATU RA Lf ST. 
natural history and Osteology 
By H. H. SCOTT 
(Curator , Victoria Museum, Launceston). 
Part I. 
nototherium tasmamcum 
(SP. NOV.) 
Habitat : Tasmania. Extinct. 
Order: Marsupialia. Family: Nototheriidae. 
Genus : Nototherium. — Owen. 
A\ S the conditions under which the remains of this animal were 
discovered have been so graphically depicted by my colleague, 
Mr. Harrisson, it will be quite unnecessary for me to enlarge upon that 
part of the subject: but for reasons that the classification make 
apparent, I am obliged to add this introductory note. 
When first called upon to express an opinion respecting the bones 
—upon the strength of Mr. Lovells’ description —1 stated they were, 
without much doubt, those of an extinct Marsupial Diprotodent, and 
leaned to the conviction of their being the 4 Diprotodon’ of Owen. 
Later on, I saw parts of the skull and one vertebra, and from the 
•evidence thus supplied retained my original conviction. At this time 
the anterior part of the skull had not been unearthed, and was net 
recovered for nearly six weeks, and it was also a month, or more, 
before I had a chance to examine the humerus, with its convincing 
proof of the presence, or absence, of an * Entepycondylar foramen .’ 
Consequently, my classification was, more or less, tentative and pro¬ 
visional. 
The discovery of the anterior part of the skull and the arrival of 
the humerus at the Museum set at rest, once and for all, the question 
of classification, it being at once evident that the extinct pachyderm 
was the 4 Nototherium,’ and not the Diprotodon. It may be said 
here that the skull was recovered in thirty - two pieces, and the 
animal, being an aged one, such teeth of the cheek line as came to 
hand, with the original fragments , furnished little evidence of taxo¬ 
nomic value. With the later find—more perfect, and therefore less 
worn—specimens were available, retaining the characteristic crowns of 
the Nototherium. When I had time to go into the question of the 
osteology of our specimens, I quickly found that it departed so much 
from Owen’s ‘Nototherium mitchelli ’ that the idea of a new species 
